We’re In This Together: Solving Oakland’s Trash Problem

Nobody knows it, but I have a plan. Even I didn’t know it until I started to put some of my ideas down on paper. I feel better having thought this through and getting it out of my system. Perhaps you have an idea that’s been brewing?

My plan is also motivated by the fact that The New York Times recently wrote an article about Oakland’s trash problem. And then there is the excellent podcast East Bay Yesterday by Liam O’Donoghue with an episode entitled, “We let everybody throw it away: how garbage worked before corporations took over.”  So, you see it’s not just my private rant, but a real problem.

Trash. We moved away from Oakland for twelve years and when we came back in 2022, I couldn’t believe all the mounds of trash. It was everywhere, especially as you pulled on or off of freeways, at underpasses, and even on the streets. Why so much trash? And why do I find it so infuriating?

Doesn’t everyone love beauty, in all its varieties? How can you live in the Bay Area and not enjoy its stunning and everchanging views of the bay and even the skylines? Do you really then want to look down at the earth and see trash strewn about? Do you want to witness our streams littered with plastic bottles or mattresses discarded along the curving roads to our East Bay parks? Why are people disrespecting our streets, our town, and each other by trashing it up?

Some people say it’s folks from outside of Oakland who are dumping their trash here because there’s no enforcement. Some say the dump fees and the home and business garbage collection bills are too high. Some say it’s due to the unhoused people and all the trash that accumulates around them. Some say it’s because of the cost of living here that makes people resentful, so they just don’t care anymore.

Every week I drive to West Oakland to tutor adults who are working toward a high school diploma. This drive is always a window into one part of the trash problem. Unhoused people set up make-shift beds and tents on the streets. Why? Because there’s not enough affordable, decent housing. Piles of garbage, unwanted household goods, and broken stuff appear and disappear from different blocks, but never seem to go away. Each week I get upset about people having to live in squalor, and I get upset about all the trash.

Once every few months I drive to Palo Alto to meet a couple of friends for brunch. I cross the Dumbarton Bridge, drive past Meta and through a bit of East Palo Alto and into the leafy housing area near downtown. What I notice is that there is no trash, not even near the freeways. Why is that?

So, for the past three years I’ve been thinking about trash. To be honest, I don’t really want to be thinking about trash, but nonetheless it has become a focal point for my anger about what’s going on in our world.

I’m ready to present my plan to anyone who will listen. Will you listen?

READER 1

Sue, I’m listening, but you need to listen too. You know, you’re not the first person to try to solve this problem.

READER 2

I’ve been picking up trash in my neighborhood every week for two hours for the past two years. It’s so discouraging. No matter how much trash we pick up there is always more the following week. I’m losing faith in my community. Frankly, I’m ready to quit and move on to a new volunteer job.

I hear you both. This is a complicated problem so it requires a multi-step plan and many strategies to change the status quo. Some of the ideas I’m presenting are small and involve individual effort and some are big and require government intervention.

Here we go.

1.     Oakland now seems to be called “The Town.” I guess that label started while we were away. So, let’s capitalize on that. Use the Oak tree graphic or the Oaklandish image to build an Oakland beautification campaign. Get celebrities to champion it, such as: Steph Curry, Sheila E., Tommy Orange, Daveed Diggs, mayor Barbara Lee, W. Kamau Bell, or who else should we consider?

2.     Bring the campaign to public and private schools at all levels, religious and community centers, libraries, and gyms. Start weekly trash pick-up brigades and contests and competitions. Make this part of P.E. or class projects. Discuss why this is important: beauty, pride, keeping trash out of the water systems, reduce/reuse/recycle.

3.     Start a competition for high school and college students to invent a trash vacuum to pick up the nasty small stuff along the sides of the road. Actually, there could be a couple of different categories of vacuums: some for the nasty small stuff, another for the slightly larger pieces of detritus. It could even be a robot that is attached to a dumpster. Rather than leaving the collected garbage bags along the side of the road, that then seem to get scavenged by raccoons or skunks and re-strewn about the roads, the bags could immediately be dumped into a trash compactor or dumpster.

4.     Institute free dump days once a month or even once a week. Get corporate and/or individual sponsorship to pay for this.

5.     Offer a program of free or low-cost garbage service for those residents who can’t afford it. Get corporate and/or individual sponsorship to pay for this.

6.     Create more transitional and affordable housing in places where people actually want to live: near public transportation, shops, parks, areas of beauty rather than on toxic waste sites or near freeways.

7.     Develop systems and regulations to ensure there are adequate trash cans and public bathrooms in the design and construction of parks, housing areas, city streets, public places, etc.

8.     Just as is already being done in our Dimond neighborhood, have neighborhood clean-up days twice a year. Make it fun and festive. Provide supplies, work in teams, give away t-shirts, provide food, create community.

9.     Provide decent-paying litter pick-up jobs to continue to keep The Town clean. Get corporate and/or individual sponsorship to pay for this. Make sure that the bags of trash collected get immediately thrown in dumpsters.

10.  Coordinate with other East Bay cities and the County to work on this as a regional issue.

11.  Each week encourage our city council members, mayor and/or her staff, business leaders, judges, celebrities, etc. to get out in the community for one hour a week to collect trash. Get journalists to cover this. These folks should be assigned to different areas with the most trash buildup. If they can’t make it one week due to physical limitations or sickness, they need to assign someone else to take their place. Demonstrate that we are all in this together.

This problem is more complicated than it seems. It’s going to take a multi-prong approach. And, that’s why we all need to get involved and stay involved to clean up our city and keep it clean. If we pick up the detritus from our streets, we will feel pride and will care about each other more. It will bring in more jobs and thus more income to support housing for all.

I made two mind maps as I was thinking about my plan. The first one above illustrates The Problem and the second one below illustrates what the solutions might lead to if we implement a plan like this.

What problem keeps you up at night? I know I feel better just having written about my concerns and dreaming up ideas for making our community better. Give it a try.Nobody knows it, but I have a plan. Even I didn’t know it until I started to put some of my ideas down on paper. I feel better having thought this through and getting it out of my system. Perhaps you have an idea that’s been brewing?